Interrupting the Possibility of Summer Reading Loss - an idea from the latest research!

As summer holidays approach, you may be thinking about how to help sustain your students’ literacy gains.  Perhaps some students started the school year struggling with reading and now they have discovered the joy and wonder of becoming ever more literate.  Then comes the summer that for some children seems to ‘undo’ some of their gains…
 

Richard Allington, through his latest research, offers us some compelling ideas to think about.  He notes that the Phillips and Chin (2004) study found that children who read at least 30 minutes daily during the summer months had significant higher reading gains during the summer than those who read less, even when holding demographic factors constant.   In addition, throughout the last century, study after study has noted that the proximity of libraries to homes, the number of books available in the home, and the supply, affordability and accessibility of printed materials available in communities were all related and helped to facilitate voluntary reading activity. 

So how did Allington et al’s most recent research address the possibility of summer reading loss?  Book fairs were offered in 17 high-need elementary schools.  Beginning in grades 1 and 2, randomly selected children attended the book fair and selected the books they wanted from about 500 titles.  On the last day of school the self-selected summer books were distributed to the ‘summer books’ children.  After three summers of receiving the self-selected trade books, the ‘summer books’ children had reading achievement significantly better than the control group from their schools who did not receive any summer books.  It was the most at-risk, neediest children who benefitted the most!    The question becomes:  how can we insure that these books get into children’s hands?  Perhaps also a shout- out to our educational partners – funding for initiatives of this kind would go a very long way.

What was unique about Allington’s approach?  The students were the neediest beginning readers in grades 1 and 2 when the research began.  Secondly, the students self-selected 15 books each summer that appealed to them – they were not based on reading level or someone else’s idea of what would interest the children. 

In summary, even if summer reading loss is deemed to be small each year, cumulatively it has an impact.  Cooper at al. (1996) did the math:  if summer reading loss equates to two months over the summer for the neediest at-risk students, and the most proficient students gain one month, this accumulation of smaller annual losses can translate into a four-year reading achievement gap by the end of grade 12.  The evidence is clear – improving children’s access to books they actually want to read during the summer months early on in their school career can largely disrupt summer reading loss and greatly impact student achievement and well-being over the longer term. 

By supplying at-risk children, beginning in grades 1 and 2 with 15 self-selected trade books each year at the beginning of the summer, summer reading loss was largely solved.